In-vitro molecular interaction of boron doped carbon dots with human serum albumin

Abstract Carbon dots have drawn prodigious attention in biomedical and biological fields by virtue of its unique optical properties, but their effect on structure and behaviour of essential proteins have rarely been explored. In this study boron doped carbon dots (BCDs) which was synthesized by microwave treatment of citric acid, boric acid and urea, with maximum emission wavelength of 444 nm when excited upon long wavelength ultra-violet light. Synthesized BCDs were characterized by UV-Visible, FTIR, HRTEM and Fluorescence spectroscopy. Interaction between BCDs and human serum albumin (HSA) is carried out in physiological conditions. Stoichiometry of BCDs-HSA was found to be 1:1 and various thermodynamic parameters have also been calculated. The negative value of ΔG suggested that interaction between HSA and BCDs was spontaneous in nature.